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If at first you don't succeed: Kansas football's defense learns through weekly trial and error
CHRISTIAN HARDY
@ByHardy
Sitting in a spy position to keep an eye on dual-threat Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Kendall Duckworth had three chances. On the first, the freshman linebacker froze in his place; Mahomes got outside the pocket and escaped the spy. On the next attempt, Duckworth over-pursued Mahomes, and
the 210-pound Duckworth was swallowed by a Tech offensive lineman.
On the third try, he did everything right. He was patient, but just antsy enough, then he finally got to the quarterback. Even so, Mahomes stiff-armed Duckworth into the turf with ease and made a play downfield.
The trio of failures — though one was a slight success — was much like Kansas football's defense this year.
"We had three chances there, and that's kind of the way our season goes — a little trial and error and figuring it out during the game," said defensive coordinator Clint Bowen. "Hopefully the next game he's in that role, and he'll be even better at it."
If there has been one small success for the Kansas defense that could compare, in essence, to Duckworth's, it was last week's game against Texas Tech. Rather than just three
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
A Texas Tech lineman prevents Kansas safety Fish Smithson from catching Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes on Oct.17.
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trials, though, it took Kansas six to look like a competitive Division I defense.
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Tech's bustling offense — No. 2 in the country and averaging over 50 points per game at the time — came into Lawrence as 34-point favorites. Kansas' defense held the Red Raiders to 23 points.
The defensive line brought more pressure than ever, which allowed Kansas to tally five sacks — three more than Tech had given up in the first five games of the season. The season-high in sacks came along with season-high nine tackles for loss.
"We've been seeing signs of progress," Bowen said. "The last three weeks you've seen some signs of some kids growing up and learning to play at the Big 12 level.
"The young kids that haven't been through the battles, they have to develop their way to prepare for a game, and I don't know if our kids really understood that for the first few weeks."
The few older players Kansas has — namely the senior defensive end Ben Goodman — didn't prepare normally for the Tech game, though. The attitude was different. After five straight losses, Goodman "just got tired of it," Beaty recalled Goodman saying in a meeting after the game. He tallied his first sack in four games in the loss.
He's not the only one, either.
"We don't want to be the laughingstock of college football," said sophomore linebacker Joe Dineen. "You get sick of it. You come out here and work hard just like everyone else. When you don't see the product on the field that you're hoping for, after a while it just gets tiring."
While holding Tech to 30 points is a serviceable silver lining for now, the defense is still young and has only grasped a fraction of what Bowen can offer them. Bowen gave his players the example this week of the Orange Bowl team. Bowen said his current playbook is 30 percent of what it was when he was the co-defensive coordinator against Virginia Tech in January 2008.
In one aspect, Kansas football is level with every team in the country: practice time. Every college team gets two live contact practices a week and four hours per day, or 20 hours per week, in practice time. But a level playing field is not resulting in level results. After all, Kansas still gave up 576 yards of total offense to Tech and are fifth-worst in the NCAA in yards allowed per game with 560.
we need to come up with and continue to build on."
"We're definitely not out of the weeds," Bowen said. "We can go out there at Oklahoma State this weekend and look like we don't have any clue what we're doing again. Every-day is a process with this group of guys ... consistency is what
There's plenty of building right now. Kansas has played the most first-time players in Division 1 and has started the second-most first-time starters this year, including quarterback Ryan Willis, who will start again against Oklahoma State this weekend with Montell Cozart nursing a shoulder injury. Many of those are playing on defense against the top competition in the nation in the Big 12.
It's now — with some strength on the defensive end and Willis under-center — that Kansas has some momentum to get on the right footing in the right direction. The Jayhawks might fail again. They might get stiff-armed and fall to the turf. But in a trial-and-error process for the football program, next Saturday is crucial in tightening that error gap.
"You realize the process. You want to keep getting better. You're not going to go from zero to running the table right away," Dineen said. "But we need to get a win. These last six games are so important. We feel like we can go out and win all of them."
Edited by Rebeka Luttinger
What you need to know from Big 12 Men's Basketball Media Day:5 team recaps
SHANE JACKSON @jacksonshane3
On Tuesday, all 10 Big 12 coaches met with members of the media at the Sprint Center for the 2015 Big 12 Men's Basketball Media Day. Here are some key points from each of the coaches who took the podium:
Bill Self - Kansas
Despite being a unanimous favorite, Self once again deflected the attention to the rest of the conference. He said the conference may be as good as it has ever been, making the quest for the 12th straight regular season title more daunting.
"It will be an unbelievable league again, just like it has been. Maybe as good this year as it ever has been," Self said. "So certainly whoever is fortunate enough to be the last one standing will have to be very consistent and play well for a long time."
A key factor in Kansas ending the season on top will be the reemergence of junior guard Wayne Selden Jr. Selden has struggled to meet expectations his first two years at Kansas but showcased his potential this summer at the World University Games in South Korea.
Selden ranked second in scoring in the games with an average of 19.3 points per contest. He led the USA team in scoring four times and hit a team-best 18 three pointers throughout the tournament.
"Wayne Selden, I think, emerged as not [only] a good college player, [but] a great college player over there," Self said. "He was terrific."
His efforts were good enough to be named to the World University Games First Team along with junior guard Frank Mason.
But perhaps the biggest story from the Big 12 Media Day regarding Kansas was Self giving a sneak peek of what his starting lineup would look like come November.
Much had been made about Kansas having two premier point guards in Mason and
sophomore guard Devonte'
Graham and how Self would
handle their minutes. For now,
Self plans to start both in the
backcourt.
"I'm not saying that it will for sure happen, but as of now, Devonte' [Graham] and Frank [Mason] will start next to each other," Self said.
Lon Kruger — Oklahoma
The Sooners appear to be the biggest threat to dethrone the Jayhawks, at least according to the Preseason Coaches Poll, in which they are second.
A major factor in the Oklahoma preseason hype is reigning Big 12 Player of the Year, Buddy Hield, who elected to return for his senior season instead of going to the NBA.
"Buddy took those projections and took the expert's opinions and said, 'I can get better." Kruger said. "He said he thought he could improve his game, and maybe elevate his draft status and give himself a better chance to have a longer career at the next level."
Hield nailed 93 three-pointers in 2014 the fourth most in program history in a single season. His efforts from downtown aided him to lead the conference in scoring with 17.4 points per game.
Scott Drew - Baylor
Scott Drew - Baylor Preseason expectations project Baylor to be around the middle of the pack in the conference. But the Bears are no cakewalk, as they boast one of the scariest interiors in the league with senior forward Rico Gathers highlighting the group.
"His jump shot has improved, Drew said. "It's a lot softer, a lot better rotation. At the end of the day, making those free throws will be first and foremost."
The 6-foot-8 forward led the league in rebounds with 394 last season as a junior, averaging 11.6 boards per game. That mark was good for third in the nation and set a school record. The All-Big 12 forward scored in double figures in 21 of his 34 games in addition to recording double-digit rebounds in 25
Shaka Smart - Texas
contests.
New Texas coach Shaka Smart prepares for his inaugural season in the Big 12 after leading VCU to a 26-10 record last season. His adjustment to the Big 12 should be much smoother with junior guard Isaiah Taylor, who was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team. Similar to Mason, Taylor could move off the ball a bit more this season.
Taylor was named to the All-Big 12 Third Team last year, averaging 13.1 points per contest. As a sophomore, Taylor was 10th in the conference during league play with 12.8 points per game.
"Isaiah finds a way to get off the point guard position quite a bit in practice," Smart said. "That's because we have some other guys that can handle the ball and play that point guard position. He'll start there unless something crazy happens."
The Mountaineers will have the tough task of replacing Juwan Staten, who led the team in scoring with 14.2 points per contest last year.
"Juwan Staten had a perfect career for us. I think the big thing that we'll miss is the ball security," Huggins said. "Juwan was one of those guys you couldn't trap, you couldn't take the ball from him, and he made free throws."
Bob Huggins - West Virginia
For now it appears the team's leading returning scorer, junior forward Devin Williams, is up to the challenge of replacing Staten.
Williams was third in the conference with a clip of 8.1 rebounds per game. He averaged 11.6 points per contest last year as a sophomore — good for 15th in the league. Because of his ability to score and crash the glass, Williams had the second-most double-doubles in the conference with nine.
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